A political analyst has said that Saudi-backed crackdown against people in Bahrain is not against the policies of US authorities.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Ralph Schoenman, author of “The Hidden History of Zionism,” regarding the Saudi brutalities against unarmed Bahrainis and the US support of the crackdown, which is proven by the silence in the US media.

Press TV: Saudi protesters have once again taken to the streets to demand their rights and condemn the occupation of Bahrain. Why is it that the US and others that claim democracy and human rights do not hear their voices?

Schoenman: Because the pretense of being concerned about human rights and democracy on the part of the people who rule the United States is simple propaganda, and entire hypocrisy since there is no brutal dictatorship on a global scale that does not enjoy the military support, and financial support of the United States. This is true for the most part certainly in the Arab East and the region at large country-selling regimes.

The regime in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are prototypic of this. There is no contradiction between the US support of these regimes, and silence about their violation of basic human rights, and democratic rights because they were put in place in order to suppress the populations. These are governments that preside over the exploitation of the resources of these countries, the provision of cheap labor from their population to huge corporate conglomerates that basically control the politics of the United States, and subject countries to an absence of any resemblance of sovereignty or self-determination.

The brutality that is being witnessed in Saudi Arabia, and in particular in Bahrain is not something that is in conflict with the politics and policies of those who rule the United States, but are in fact a direct expression of it.

After all, in Bahrain the 5th Fleet is based, and the intelligence base of the US in the region is centered in Bahrain, as of the United Kingdom. And it's a launching point for the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq. In particular with regard to the Wahhabi regime in Saudi Arabia, for it's the lynchpin of imperial control of the wealth and resources of the region. In addition, it's the domination of peoples far beyond Saudi Arabia. Bahrain is a prototypic example with the present brutal occupation of Bahrain.

You referenced the Saudi women who have protested in Jeddah as reported by L'Agence France-Presse and Al Jazeera. This is of great significance. The protests on the part of women are a board demand for full rights for women, which of course are denied under the Wahhabi regime. It's important to take note of the fact that these women, and students from various universities in Tehran mobilized against the killing, and arrests of women in Bahrain and Yemen, and also the brutal crackdown on popular protests by regimes in the region.

I think it's very important if I may say so that in Iran these rights are defended and asserted and in particular women mobilize with their own interests with democratic entitlement, and for free equality at every level of society. It's important for Iran as it is for every other country not only in the region but in the world. And that includes the United States.

I would like to point out that this is a rather significant moment for the protests that are unfolding not just among the Shia population of Saudi Arabia, but the population at large. It's reported today in the Huffington Post that the regime in Bahrain has undertaken executions of Shia protesters in military courts. They have been sentenced to death and life imprisonment. This is a group of seven protesters who have been held in custody under appalling conditions. The seven opposition supporters were sentenced behind closed doors on charges of premeditated murder.

The military prosecutor claiming the defendants killed policemen by running over them with a car. There is no evidence for this. The trial is a farce. It's been denounced by Malcolm Smart, the Middle Eastern-North African Director of Amnesty International. It's been denounced by the President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek who decried the death sentences and called these closed door military trials deplorable. This is part of an intensive reign of terror being visited upon the population at large.

I just had an email moments ago from the Secretary General of Bahraini Trade Union Federation detailing the thousands of workers and Shia workers in particular who are not only being removed from work, but are finding their families harassed and are being detained for asserting basic democratic rights, trade union rights, workers rights and the right to ask for higher wages, and the right to protest the occupation of their country.

So these demonstrations you are citing in Saudi Arabia on the part of women are part of a general protest by the populations in the region and Saudi Arabia in particular against the nature of the “country-selling” regimes that are dependent on the United States rulers for their military prowess and their financial stability.